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Prompt: Because Theoric just gets in the way

Disclaimer: I do not own Thor

All of their encounters were purely academic. Well, he relents, they always began that way.

"Like this," he says, taking a blossom and holding it gingerly in one hand, watching her smile when it shifts into a bird and flies away.

"I know." She takes a bud in her hands, cupping it between her palms, whispering to the flower before spreading her hands. He laughs when a butterfly emerges. "You underestimate me," she says, watching the lilac insect float away on the wind.

He flicks his wrist and a harmless twig contorts into a snake that slithers around his feet. He realizes his expectations of her are low, but he fears what will happen when he raises them, he doesn't want to be disappointed, especially not with her.

"What else have you been working on?"

She smiles and he notices the snake at his feet returns to it's former form.

"Good."

"Thank you."

She doesn't need his teaching, she's mastered everything she needs to continue teaching herself. He's shown her the basics, taught her refinement. Now, she simply needs to take up a spell book and she can manage fine, but that doesn't stop her from still meeting him. And it doesn't stop him from always telling her to practice this or that with the intention that he'll see her again.

"Anything else?"

She shrugs. "This and that."

They sit shoulder to shoulder and he wants to wrap his arm around her, pull her closer, tell her that she's beautiful and intelligent, whisper that she deserves better than an oaf who only wants a wife. He's told her so much more than most, finding her reliable and trustworthy. What he tells her doesn't make its way into court as gossip. But, she's currently being courted by Theoric. The thought makes him frown, he has yet to see what has kept her with him, why she hasn't simply put him aside.

"How are you?" She asks, running her fingers over one of the blossoms growing nearby, watching it open under her touch.

"No different than when you last asked." He looks at her, focusing on the way her lips move to speak the spells though she says nothing. "And you?"

"Theoric has begun recycling stories and is talking about his brother's wedding."

"Hinting for marriage?"

"I suspect." She looks at him, gray eyes clear. "I want to learn the trick you did yesterday," she says suddenly.

"Which was?"

"Changing the wine into a serpent."

"You're intelligent, figure it out."

"Show me," she says and she's close enough that he wants to kiss her.

"What do you suggest we use?" From her pocket, she produces a small glass bottle of wine and he smiles. "Fine."

She holds the bottle in her hands and he takes her hands in his. The trick is easy enough without touching but he doesn't care. He lets his magic pass through her fingers, beaming when she looks in awe at the small snake that pulls its way from the bottle, slithering across her palms.

"It's the same as before. Except you have to solidify the material."

He keeps his hands pressed against hers, watching her amusement at the tiny serpent that dances over her fingers.

"Sigyn?" He asks, keeping his eyes focused on the slender green serpent.

"Yes?"

"I would very much like it if-"

"Sigyn!"

Loki glances over at Theoric who's bounding towards them. Sigyn closes her hands and when they open the snake is gone and the bottle has its wine returned. He wants to confront her on this but Theoric is already hovering over her.

"I've been looking for you."

"I've been here," she says. "Watch." The two men watch as Sigyn utters her spell and the wine in the jar disappears in a burst of tiny maroon butterflies that flutter outward. "Well?" She asks, looking at Theoric.

"That's really nice." He glances between Sigyn and Loki. "Did he teach you that?"

"Yes," she says with a smile.

"I see." He takes the jar from her fingers, setting it aside, before taking her hand in his and pulling her up. "Come along, Sigyn."

"Good day, Loki." She smiles at him, led away but forcing Theoric to slow down.

And at every lesson, Theoric appears earlier and earlier, always feigning interest in what they talked about, always smiling at Sigyn, always half-heartedly telling her that he was impressed.

It became that Loki tried sooner and sooner to speak more privately to Sigyn, the matter of teaching magic completely forgotten. He tries to win her over, wants her to get rid of Theoric, wants her. But, as if to show that he is despised by fate, Theoric always appears whenever he is remotely close at speaking frankly to her.

"He has good intentions," she told Loki quietly when Theoric approached them and it was obvious that the intrusion was grating on Loki's nerves.

Theoric always sat next to her, sitting close to her, touching her in some way whether it was an arm around her shoulders, hand on her waist or clasping onto her hand. It was when she would leave, telling Theoric that she had to go collect something -the object always changed depending on what they had done that day-, that was the moment Theoric would slide closer to Loki and begin to babble on about various topics. None of which actually caught Loki's interest but that had yet to stop Theoric.

After several days of this pattern, Theoric grins at Loki when the two are alone. "You know, I would like to consider us friends."

Loki struggles to contain himself. He wants to insist that the man should hate him. He wants to laugh in Theoric's face and call him an idiot. Yet, he can only wear a mocking smile. "That is kind of you."

And on the very next lesson, -though, he admits, it's pointless to call them such anymore when nothing is learned- he is on a mission. Sigyn is flipping through the pages of a book he lent her when he takes her hands in his, letting the book slide from her lap and fall to the ground. He kisses her, staring into her eyes. "I love you," he says quietly.

"I know," she says, smiling. "I was waiting for you to say it though."

He stares at her for a second before kissing her again.

"I'll have to tell Theoric that I cannot see him."

"Good." He smiles holding her against him. "Tell him soon."